In the new episode of House – hey, why not? Millions of people get their drug information from big pharma commercials, why not a TV series? – the doc in chronic pain changes his life completely by switching his drug of choice from Vicodin to methadone.  He’s long been suffering from prescription drug addiction, but the new one changed his personality. When his colleagues noticed his change in behavior they suspected he was on heroin. But they were outraged to find that he was on methadone instead. They said that mixing methadone with another drug, taking one drink of alcohol or taking one dose at the wrong time could kill him. And that he was twice as likely to die from methadone as from heroin.

Well, yeah, it’s a TV show. But the statistics on methadone-related deaths show the data is correct nevertheless. As of a few years ago, heroin was used by about twice as many people as methadone, but twice as many died from methadone as heroin. In fact, that means it killed four times as many people, not twice as many.

And now that methodone is being used strictly as a painkiller, not to get off heroin, the primary original use for which methadone was intended, the methadone-related death statistics are climbing.

People often don’t follow their doctor’s exact instructions no matter what medication they’re taking and no matter what warnings they’re given.  Things can be even worse with methadone since it stays in the body for longer than other drugs and might still be there even though the pain relief aspect of it has worn off. So, people tend to take their dose sooner than they should, or take a different painkiller, think they’re safe to have a drink, and so on.

The hospital administrator’s solution was to tightly control House’s methadone use. He had to get his precisely-timed dose from her and, although we didn’t see the list of other instructions she gave him, I would imagine they also included absolutely no alcohol and no other drugs without first clearing it with her.

In the end, House decided not to take it. He had made a nearly fatal error with a patient and felt the methadone had clouded his judgment.

In any case, him being on methadone wouldn’t have worked for the series because one of it’s main attractions (in the same way people are driven to slow down to see a bad traffic accident) is House’s personality – which completely changed during this episode.

TV show or not, I hope people take this information about methadone to heart. It may not tell the whole truth, but it has more truth in it than any of the ads you’ll see on TV from drug manufacturers. Unless, of course, you happen to listen to the warnings – which are issued in such soothing tones they somehow don’t manage to get the point across that the drugs are very dangerous. That’s why the prescription drug death toll is climbing, and that’s why more and more people are finally getting the message and showing up in addiction treatment centers to get off them.

Boy, I’ll bet this episode will have some people up in arms. 

Popularity: 22% [?]

There’s a new drug in town - a psychedelic called Salvia. So far, this herb is legal to buy, sell and use in all but 13 states. But other states are also looking at passing legislation that will put it in the same class as LSD.

The effects of Salvia are not completely unlike other psychedelic drugs – hallucinations, loss of motor control, out of touch with reality, some people have reported doing things like trying to ‘become one’ with things like chairs. Could be pretty painful. Read more about one person’s Salvia effects.

With such a lack of control, anyone taking this drug is obviously not safe.

Apparently, it’s not addictive but since addiction is as much a state of mind as anything physical, I wouldn’t be surprised if people ended up needing treatment for it.

The interesting thing about this drug is that medical reseachers feel it could be useful – some are actually calling it a miracle drug. They suspect it could lead to new treatments for new treatments for addiction, depression, cancer, HIV, and more.

How they’re going to harness it so it’s also safe is another story.

In the meantime, make sure you’re on the lookout for this drug and realize that anyone you know who is likely to experiment with it probably has no idea what they’re up against and could get into serious trouble.

In fact, if someone’s that desperate to change reality, they’re probably already taking drugs and should go to an addiction treatment center. If they get their personal issues resolved, they won’t be tempted by Salvia or any other drug.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Danny – the model 29-year-old, not the type you’d expect to get into drugs at all – took Percocet once to handle a hangover. The euphoria had him hooked right away and before long he was taking 25 Percocets a day.

When in recovery, he asked himself why there weren’t painkillers available that were not addictive. The answer occured to him in a flash of light: ”According to Theodore Dalrymple’s book, “Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and The Addiction Bureaucracy,” why would time, effort and millions of dollars go into research for non-addictive alternatives, when the aforementioned pain relievers are … ahem, addictive?”

That’s right. Follow the money. We hear lots of research being done on painkillers that are difficult to abuse – meaning it’s hard to break them open or melt them down so they can be shot into veins – but research on painkillers that aren’t addictive? No, we don’t hear much about that.

Big pharma wants drugs that people will keep taking – not something they can easily quit when they no longer need them for their original purpose.

It’s really time someone with clout understood these legal drug dealers. They’re counting on prescription drug addiction – not just prescription drugs – to make their fortunes.

Popularity: 29% [?]

It’s not surprising that the 60 billion dollar hospitality industry – of which serving liquor is a large part – is protesting the higher taxes on alcohol and the higher licensing fees proposed by recent legislation. But according to U.S. statistics, we’ve got about 20 million people in the U.S. who drink too much. Many of them have family problems (some lose their families altogether), lose their jobs, drive while they’re drinking, and so on, and end up in an addiction treatment center to try to get their life back on track.

And, often, that treatment comes right out of the pocket of taxpayers who don’t drink at all.

Is it wrong that an activity that causes that kind of destruction should be highly taxed? I personally don’t think so.

People may say that it’s people, not alcohol, who cause drunk-driving accidents (for example.) Yes, that’s true. They didn’t have to drink that much, did they?

But the unfortunate truth is that alcohol addiction, like drug addiction, is somewhat out of their control. As can be attested to by the millions of people attending AA meetings every day to get help resisting the demon rum.

Drugs are illegal, and even prescription drugs have warnings on them that you shouldn’t drive, operate heavy machinery etc. while taking them, but the only restriction we put on alcohol is how old you have to be to drink.

Those who drink moderately will not be very affected by the new taxes. Taxes on one or two drinks will not be prohibitive. On the other hand, if you’re going out to get drunk, the taxes could add up to a pretty penny. Likewise, it will make it more difficult for young people to head off to the store and buy a few cases of beer that are going to get a bunch of under-21′ers roaring and dangerously drunk that night.

All in all, I think we’re better off. What do you think? 

Popularity: 16% [?]

A 41-year-old British athlete, a football legend in England, known as Gazza (real name Paul John Gascoigne) has been getting his body back in shape while in rehab and is looking at taking on the Triathalon event – a swim of 2.4 miles, followed by a bike ride of 112 miles and then running a marathon. One right after the other. He’s thinking it will be the perfect follow up to the addiction treatment center help he’s been getting, and may be just the challenge he needs to keep him on the straight and narrow.

What’s happened to Gazza is interesting. Being a ‘former’ legend can’t be too comfortable. When you’re playing that hard, and winning, you have to find something to replace it when you quit.

Just as when people retire at 65 – whether they’re ready and willing to or not - quitting something you’ve been doing as a major part of your life for years isn’t easy. You have to replace it with something so you have a sense of purpose.

One of the major things done in a successful addiction treatment center would be to help someone find a purpose, something they’re passionate about. People sometimes turn to drugs when they don’t have that in their life. It’s what makes life worth living.

A good treatment center will also help the person get in shape physically. Once your body starts to feel better, you want to take better care of it and do more with it. It becomes an asset instead of a liability.

It seems that this exact thing has rehabilitated Gazza’s purpose.

If you have a family member on drugs or alcohol, make sure that the help you get for them includes something that includes something like this in their program. It’s not enough to simply stop taking drugs; there has to be more to life for full recovery to be successful.

Popularity: 13% [?]

With growing prevalence of armed robbers looking for OxyContin in pharmacies, it’s likely that many pharmacies will follow the lead of pharmacist Larry Bailey who no longer keeps the drug in his store. Patients who want to get their prescriptions filled have to wait until the next day. Bailey says having OxyContin on the premises is a liability.

Bailey sees the evidence of prescription drug addiction every day. At least once a day people come to him to fill their OxyContin or Vicodin prescriptions early, and more than once a month people try to alter their prescriptions.

How does prescription drug addiction start? For some it starts with a relatively minor problem like headaches, as in the case of wife and mother Julie Steiner who, one year after her doctor wrote the prescription, was popping 20 pills a day.  That’s  about $100 a day habit. If she were taking OxyContin, the cost would more likely be in the $600/day range.

How do people support such habits? Certaintly not too many can afford it without changing something about their lives. Steiner went doctor-shopping, and sent her friends out to do the same. Others also turn to a life of crime – like armed robbery of pharmacies and worse.

It took a lot to get Steiner to stop taking Vicodin. She had a seizure when she dropped her kid off at a bowling alley, then spent two days in the hospital and two weeks in rehab – not enough time to handle all the issues behind the addiction.

So, she relapsed. But not for long. Her desparate husband finally threatened to get the police involved and she quit once and for all. Imagine having to call the police on your wife.

But she still has the headaches and takes over the counter drugs for them.

As an aside, headaches happen for a reason. How much did her doctor do to find out that reason before he prescribed a highly addictive drug that turned life for her and her family into a years-long nightmare?

Make sure you look for all other options before you decide to take prescription painkillers. And if you have a doctor who refuses to send you to chiropractors, acupuncturists and other types of alternative medicine practitioners, get rid of him.

Don’t think prescription drug addiction can’t happen to you. It happens to people from all walks of life. And if it already has happened to you or someone you love – get into an addiction treatment center for help.

Popularity: 20% [?]

If you would like your college-aged kids to drink less, make alcohol  tougher to get. It’s working with adults – both social drinkers and problem drinkers drink less when taxes on alcohol are higher.

When my teenage (and then young adult) son was drinking too much, but still living at home or dependent on me, I made money very scarce for him. I monitored his spending. He wasn’t working, his money came from me, so I did my best to make sure he didn’t have any. At least, not for alcohol. When he needed money he told me what it was for, I gave it to him, and he verified that’s what he bought with it.

Sounds cruel perhaps, and maybe even stupid, but it worked. He drank much less.

But it doesn’t work once they have money. It also doesn’t work if their friends do the buying. If there’s an alcohol addiction going on – they can’t, don’t, or won’t stop themselves from drinking, even if they don’t drink all day every day  – then they need help through an addiction treatment center.

I know plenty of families whose kids need alcohol rehab and most of them don’t even realize it. Drinking it so acceptable, parents expect their young adult kids to drink. It’s ’what kids do.’

But, you know, it’s not ‘what kids do’. Unless they’re influenced to do it. If their friends drink, their parents drink, their role models drink then, yes, they’re going to think it’s okay and maybe even ’cool’.

A good alcohol rehab program will set them straight on that. 

Popularity: 22% [?]

By now just about everyone knows about Michael Phelps smoking marijuana. Or, at least, he was holding the pipe and we assume he was smoking it. Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said Phelps, “… let down the world.”  That’s a lot of pressure.

But I think this incident might be a blessing in disguise. People for whom he’s a role model have now gotten the message, straight from Phelps, that using drugs is not acceptable.

As there’s a very good chance that many people who admire Phelps take drugs themselves, this might act as a deterrent. They may never have known or even thought about Phelps’ stand on drugs – now they know.

I hope they’re not too jaded to think he apologized and expressed his regrets just to make himself look good to his sponsors, the Olympic Committee, and so on.

When I was about his age I quit smoking because someone I very much admired did a lot of research on it and concluded it was very unhealthy. I smoked like a furnace before that. So did she. It had never really occurred to me to quit – that was quite a few years ago, long before it became such a big issue - until she did.

Maybe someone out there who smokes marijuana, who never really considered there was anything wrong with it, might have a second look at it in light of Phelps admitting it was stupid.

Maybe someone who takes other drugs might even be influenced to get help through an addiction treatment center.

All in all, this incident may do more good than harm.

Popularity: 15% [?]